Kazakhstan is one of the five Central Asian countries, bordered to the north by Russia and to the south by Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Kyrgyzstan.
It has the Caspian Sea to the west and a 1,500-kilometer border with China to the east.
Kazakhstan covers an area of 2.72 million square kilometers, making it the ninth-largest country in the world.
Its current population exceeds 20 million, with 1.32 million in the capital, Nur-Sultan, and 2.13 million in its largest city, Almaty.
As the world's largest landlocked country, Kazakhstan is over 2,000 kilometers from the Arctic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans, and 700 kilometers from the Black Sea.
Sixty percent of the country is covered by deserts and semi-deserts, with plains comprising about 30%, approximately 800,000 square kilometers.
The climate is temperate continental, with annual precipitation ranging from 300-400 millimeters in the north to over 1,000 millimeters on the windward slopes of the eastern mountains.
While much of Central Asia, excluding Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, is arid and water-scarce, Kazakhstan has a relatively unique situation with the Irtysh and Ili rivers originating from China's Xinjiang, providing an annual runoff of 23 billion cubic meters.
Additionally, there are freshwater lakes like Balkhash and Zaysan, and saltwater lakes such as the Aral Sea and Caspian Sea.
Lake Balkhash alone has a storage capacity of 112 billion cubic meters, comparable to China's Qinghai Lake and five times that of Fuxian Lake.
The per capita water resources exceed 5,000 cubic meters.
Kazakhstan has a high level of agricultural development.
The Ili River Valley covers about 100,000 square kilometers, approximately two-thirds of the valley, consisting of fertile alluvial plains.
Along with the lower Irtysh River and the West Siberian Plain, Kazakhstan boasts vast arable lands.
Currently, there are nearly 35 million acres of arable land, with an annual grain output of 21 million tons, surpassing the combined total of other Central Asian countries, making Kazakhstan the top grain producer in Central Asia.
It not only achieves complete self-sufficiency but also exports significantly to earn foreign exchange.
Formerly a Soviet republic and major industrial area, Kazakhstan has a strong heavy industrial base.
Since the implementation of its industrialization plan, its industrial level has further improved, with major industries including metallurgy, machinery manufacturing, food processing, and automobile manufacturing.
Almaty and Karaganda are renowned industrial cities in Central Asia.
According to the latest fiscal data released in 2023, the industrial and manufacturing output accounts for 27% of the GDP.
Central Asia's five countries are all rich in energy and mineral resources, with Kazakhstan being particularly resource-abundant.
The Caspian Sea, dubbed the "second Persian Gulf," has proven oil reserves of 32.7 billion tons, with Kazakhstan holding 13 billion tons.
It has natural gas reserves of 2 trillion cubic meters, coal reserves of 176.7 billion tons, and iron ore reserves of 9.1 billion tons, with a high proportion of rich ores.
Kazakhstan has the world's second-largest uranium reserves, approximately 1.5 million tons;
the fourth-largest manganese reserves, 600 million tons; the second-largest chromium reserves, 400 million tons; and the eighth-largest gold reserves, 1,900 tons.
Kazakhstan's mineral wealth rivals that of Australia and Canada, making it wealthy from resources alone, supplemented by its developed agriculture and industry.
In 2023, Kazakhstan achieved a GDP of $261.4 billion, which is 22 times that of Tajikistan, 18 times that of Kyrgyzstan, 2.8 times that of Uzbekistan, and 3.2 times that of Turkmenistan.
Its per capita GDP of $13,300 leads Central Asia and is nearly on par with Russia's per capita GDP of $13,600, earning it the title of "superpower" in Central Asia.
In contrast, Mongolia, the world's second-largest landlocked country, pales in comparison.
Despite being resource-rich, Mongolia's agricultural and industrial development is far behind Kazakhstan's.
With a population of only 3.4 million, less than one-fifth of Kazakhstan's, Mongolia's GDP is $20.5 billion, less than one-tenth of Kazakhstan's, and its per capita GDP is $6,000, less than half of Kazakhstan's.
Although it has a small population and abundant mineral resources, Mongolia remains impoverished, with a high poverty rate, which is quite lamentable.
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